A Christmas Story
by mickeyrome
Summary: It's the holidays, and Marinette, Adrien, Nino and Alya are up to their knees in schoolwork, decorations, part time jobs, akuma attacks, and not to mention the school production, Romeo and Juliet! Fluff, Adrienette, and holiday fun!
1. Chapter 1

It was a cold yet clear December afternoon, and Marinette was in the christmas spirit. Carefully she strung up colorful lights on her balcony in her parka and snow boots. A small shiver ran down her spine. Marinette sighed and stepped back to admire the work she'd done on her favorite bakery. Tinsel, lights and strings of popcorn could be found along the steamed windows and inside was a tree decorated with glittery ornaments. She smiled slightly and headed in to warm up with a cup of hot coco.

Although his house was farther away, through the thin clouds, Marinette could make out Adrien's house, and the shining lights that were slowly being hung up outside. She happily sighed once more, thinking of what Adrien would be doing at the moment.

"Alright class! Please listen up because I'd rather not repeat myself," Mrs. Adalene, the new professor, spoke aloud to the class.

"To celebrate the holidays this December, we're going to put on a play for the whole school! After giving this much thought, we'll perform the play, Romeo and Juliet!" Marinette gasped and beamed at her friend next to her.

"Now, auditions will be held a week from now, and you all must prepare a monologue for the directors. Because this will be a student prepared performance, you will be doing it all yourselves. The directors, I've decided will be Alya and Nino," Alya glanced at Nino and smiled in excitement.

"They may also cast themselves if there are not enough parts. That is all! You have the rest of class to work on your monologues!"

"Wow! I'll be able to work with Adrien!" Marinette squealed silently to Alya.

"And I get to direct it with Nino! This'll be awesome girl! Now we need to get to work on your monologue!" Alya decided.

"Dude! Imagine if you get to play Romeo! That'll be so cool!" Nino exclaimed.

"That will be fun, but I'm not sure I really want to. More lines means more to memorize. I'm also already so busy with fencing, chinese, piano and schoolwork," 'and not to mention saving Paris all the time. I'm already late enough as it is!' Adrien thought to himself.

"Aww, come on dude! You're already a model and being an actor is just a step up! You'll memorize those lines no prob! Plus, I bet Marinette's going to go out for the Juliet part, and I don't want to see her kissing any other guys, you know what I mean?" Nino whispered. It was true. Adrien and Nino were very protective of Marinette. Considering they hung out with her and Alya a lot, they had grown to care about her like a little sister.

Adrien sighed, "Alright. I'll do it. You'll have to help me memorize my lines though, okay?" Adrien smiled.

"Well look who's being all confident. Remember, there's no guarantee you'll get the part! You better start finding a monologue!" Alya was eavesdropping on their conversation, "I'll do my best on this end too. Mari better be ready, she's going up against the Queen Bee herself."

Agh, that's right! There's a possibility Chloe might get the part of Juliet, Adrien thought. Oh well. Nothing he could really do about it. He'd better start working on his monologue.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A week passed in a flash, and time was moving too fast for Marinette. She'd decided on her monologue, with help from Alya of course, and was almost finished memorizing it. Yet against her wish for more time, the auditions was staring her in the face.

"Marinette! Come on down, you'll be late for school!" A voice echoed from the bottom of the staircase.

"Coming mom!" She shouted back. Tikki zipped into Marinette's handbag. Quickly, she grabbed her tablet, shoved it into her backpack and ran down the steps. Marinette crammed a piece of buttered toast into her mouth and ran out the door.

"Bye mom! Bye dad!" She cheered, running down the street.

It was a crisp, cool morning in Paris and the school was decorated with snow lining the rooftop and ice on the stairs. A few stragglers were rushing up the icy steps as the school bell rang, indicating the start of class.

"Woah!" Marinette exclaimed, slipping while trying to rush inside.

"Ow! That hurt," she mumbled as she started picking up her strewn items across the cold ice.

"Need help?" A friendly hand reached down to pick her up.

"Adrien?" Marinette stammered.

"At your service!" He replied cheerfully.

"But, but you're going to be late too!" She exclaimed, picking up her books.

"No worries, we can be late together," he explained, "I think you might need a new tablet."

"Oh," Marinette sighed dejectedly, taking her shattered tablet from Adrien's gloved hands, "well, we need to hurry!" She snatched up the rest of her supplies, grabbed Adrien's hand, and rushed up the stairs and into the school.

It was only once they reached their classroom, Marinette realized she'd grasped Adrien's hand, and quickly let go, blushing furiously. The teacher stopped, and the whole class stared at the two walking slowly to their seats. Chloe balled her fists across the room and gave Marinette a deathly glare. Alya was grinning like a mad woman, and it looked like Nino was just confused.

"Alright, now that we have everyone here, I know that you're all excited about the auditions to come, but unfortunately you'll have to wait until after school," the teacher stated, but the whole class groaned, and Chloe scowled.

"Now, if you'll please take out your tablets."

Marinette sighed as she glanced across her desk at her broken tablet. This was going to be a long day.

Finally, after many long hours of twiddling thumbs and tapping fingers, the final school bell rang and the auditions started.

Alya and Nino sat at an important looking table, both taking notes, and looking quite bored, despite this being the first person to audition. The auditions were set up so the directors would be in one room, and the actors would be waiting out in the hall. That way, the directors could focus on one actor at a time.

Just like with everything else, Chloe went first.

"Don't mind if you don't get the main role, it wasn't meant to be anyways," she snarked at no one in particular as she entered the auditioning room.

Out in the hallway, Marinette was trembling like she had frostbite. Adrien looked upon her with worry and walked up to his shaking friend.

"Stage fright?" He asked. Marinette's head shot up from between her knees in surprise.

"A - Adrien?" Marinette stumbled, red as a tomato.

"This situation seems kinda familiar," Adrien joked with a slight smile.

"Yeah..." Marinette was turning redder by the second. She quickly buried her head back in her knees.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked.

"Not really," Marinette admitted, "I've got stage fright, and I know I'll mess up. Plus I'm competing against the entire class for a part, including Chloe!"

Adrien smiled, remembering a situation close to this, once very long ago with his lady.

"It's just Alya and Nino you have to perform for this time. Don't worry about it, I know you'll do well. You've got this! Have you memorized the monologue you chose?"

"Yeah, but I know I'll sutter and forget it."

"Then just imagine you're practicing alone in your room."

"Okay, I'll try. Thanks for your help. You're really cool, you know that? You aren't afraid of anything," Marinette murmured,

"I wish. I'm scared of a lot of things," Adrien shuddered at what thoughts came to his head, "I just try not to think about it, you know? Out of sight, out of mind."'

The crowd around the hallway slowly disappeared as more and more people auditioned and left the school. Marinette had signed up last so she wouldn't have to go right away. Adrien left to audition, and now it was just her in the hallway.

"You'll be great Marinette! If you can save the world on a daily basis, this should be easy peasy!" Tikki cheered from Marinette's handbag.

"But when I'm Ladybug, no one knows it's me. Now, if I mess up, everyone will know and I'll have to live with it for the rest of my life!" Marinette whined.

"To act means to put on a costume and be someone else. You're not yourself onstage because you are your character! It's almost your turn to perform, you better get ready!" Tikki reminded her.

"You're right. I shouldn't be nervous. Just pretend to be my character. Thanks Tikki!" Marinette stood up and slowly walked into the auditioning room.

"Break a leg!" Adrien whispered as he walked out, his turn now over. Alya and Nino smiled kindly at Marinette, but she could see the tiredness in their eyes from listening to monologue after monologue.

Marinette was shaking, but drew in a deep breath, let it out, and started speaking.


End file.
